The Marunda lubricants oil blending plant
The Marunda Lubricants Oil Blending Plant (LOBP) is a project that employs leading technology and smart manufacturing concepts. Building upon a longstanding relationship between ABB and Shell Indonesia dating back to 2014, ABB delivered the plant extension project (Marunda 2.0) to double its production capacity.
The project commenced with conceptual studies in February 2018, and the work itself began at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Despite the challenges, project execution was completed within three years by October 2022.
“The selection of ABB blending technology and equipment is one the critical factors for the success of the Marunda 2.0 project,” said Gautam Pal, Vice President Shell Lubricants Supply Chain.
New blending technologies
The most significant core process extension includes the installation of new blending technologies delivered in skid, fully assembled and cabled to support the implementation of a new simultaneous batch blender - to blend medium and large volumes - alongside two new automatic batch blenders. One of these blends small batches for specialty products, while the other is dedicated to turbine oil products which require complete segregation in terms of blending equipment.
Other technologies necessary for process blending were incorporated, including:
- Drum Decanting Systems
- Drum ovens
- Viscosity Index Improver dispersing unit, comprised of Process Pump and Instrumentation, Pigged Lines, and Pigged Manifolds
ABB also performed a complete revamp of the control system using the Lubcel™ process control system along with scheduling software to support the plant’s entire production system, from raw material reception and storage to product dispatch incorporating blending, transfers, filling, and warehousing.
“With these process solutions, Shell Indonesia will optimize all aspects of continuous and batch operations at the existing brownfield site,” says Bert Engbers, Global Account Manager for Shell, ABB Energy Industries. “They will monitor and manage everything from raw materials use to product formulation, from sub-recipes and recipes to resources, from inventory logs and production batches to cleaning sequences.”
Built to grow with Shell’s growing portfolio
Tailored to meet the needs of the customer, the ABB process solution is designed to ensure it works with existing blending tools as well as support the enlargement of Shell’s existing site to meet the company’s diverse and growing portfolio of products.
With growing industrialization and rising consumer spend on automotive products across Indonesia, this investment is a key step by Shell to meet the market demand for more varied and higher quality lubricant products.
“At every stage of development, we have strived to ensure efficiency is at the forefront,” says Jean Vandevelde, Area Sales Manager for Cellier Activity at ABB. “From plant design to maintenance, we are providing capital and operational expenditure benefits. By leveraging ABB’s blending technologies, we reduce complexity and risk, achieve high process flexibility, and improve plant availability, making the Marunda Lubricants Oil Blending Plant more productive and more market responsive.”
The control platform will also plug into the facility’s enterprise resource planning system and include measures to reduce slops and to re-use rinsing products.
